Second Chances: Stargirl

Chapter 13

Fair warning, this chapter takes place after the fight with the Reverse Flash in my Flash story. Just pointing that out now. Hope you like the chapter.

Pat was surprised when he got an email from Courtney with a link to a website for a newspaper in Central City, though when he clicked on the link, he immediately saw why, since the headline of the article, which read THE FLASH RISES.

"What the?" Pat asked as he read the article and it sounded like a new speedster had shown up in Central City and he was even going by Jay's old moniker and was even using a similar color scheme. He couldn't help but wonder if there was a connection between him and his old friend.

Which was why he was glad that he'd been at the house so he could head straight down to the Citadel, since he had to know what was going on as he approached the main computer hub in the Citadel and booted up its AI.

"Gemma." Pat said.

"Hello Pat Dugan, how can I assist you?" Gemma asked as Pat rolled his eyes, since Courtney was the only one who had full access to Gemma, everyone else only had guest access that she had to approve, though Courtney had given him as close to full access as she could get, which basically just meant that while Gemma gave Pat all the same luxuries as Courtney, but he couldn't block her access from any files and Gemma wasn't quite as respectful to him as she was to Courtney.

"I need you to run a scan of the Central City for any traces of the speed force?" Pat asked, since while he didn't know much about Jay's powers, from what Jay had explained to him, the speed force was a source of energy that could be tracked with the right technology. Kind of like a radioactive signature.

"Would you like me to scan for Jay Garrick's specific speed force signature?" Gemma asked.

"Yes, but also look for any others." Pat said.

"Right away." Gemma said and a few minutes later she pulled up a map with three dots marked on it, all of them in Central City. Each one of them looked different. One was a bright yellow, one was dark yellow, almost gold and the last one was silver.

"Three signatures?" Pat asked in shock.

"Yes and one of is consistent with the speed force signature of Mr. Jay Garrick." Gemma said.

"Can you access his JSA comm like you did Jefferson's?" Pat asked.

"Attempting now." Gemma said as she began trying to access Jay's comm.

"Communicator accessed and now online." Gemma said.

"Send him a message with the citadel's coordinates and tell him the message is from Stripesy." Pat said.

"Done." Gemma said as the message was sent.

Literally two minutes later, Pat heard a sound he never thought he'd hear again as he turned to see Jay Garrick standing in front of him in the Citadel.

"Pat." Jay said.

"Jay." Pat said as he hugged his old friend.

"Actually, my name is Henry." Jay said.

"Wait, what?" Pat asked.

"Jay Garrick is a false identity I created to help protect my family, since my helmet didn't exactly provide the best in identity concealment. My real name is Henry Allen." Henry said.

"Honestly, I'm just glad to know you're alive to care about what your name is." Pat said truthfully as they hugged again.

"So am I. I'm sorry I never reached out to you to let you know I was alive, but honestly, until recently, I was trying to put that life behind me. Especially since I was in a pretty rough place after the attack." Henry said.

"What happened?" Pat asked.

"Well, while I survived, it was not unscathed, since something that happened to me during the battle caused me to lose my speed. Then a few months later, my wife Nora was killed by another speedster and I was nearly arrested for her murder. Thank god there was enough proof at the crime scene and the world has enough experience with the extraordinary to prove my innocence. After that, I decided that I was done with my life. Or at least I was until I discovered that my children had inherited my speed." Henry said.

"I'm guessing one of those kids is the one who's running around Central City with your name?" Pat asked and Henry nodded.

"My son Barry. He's a chip off the block, though I think he might be faster than I ever was. His connection to the speed force is stronger than any other speedster I've ever heard of. He got his powers when he was 14 and he was a natural." Henry said.

"And what about your other kids?" Pat asked.

"One other kid. My daughter Chloe, who I had with my second wife Tina. Chloe's 15 now and her powers only surfaced a few years ago. She's still learning to use her powers." Henry said.

"Sounds like Chloe's the same age as the rest of the new era of the JSA." Pat said.

"Wait, what?" Henry asked.

"It turns out that Blue Valley is full of legacies. My stepdaughter Courtney is Sylvester's daughter and she has his staff, Ted's niece and goddaughter Yolanda has powers that are exactly like the abilities Ted's suit gave him, and Jefferson sent his daughter Jen here and she has an upgraded version of his powers. Also, Rex's son is in Blue Valley and his mother gave me the hourglass, though Rick doesn't know about the JSA yet, but he will." Pat said.

"Think you'd mind adding one more?" Henry asked.

"Meaning?" Pat asked, since he assumed that Henry wasn't talking about himself.

"Tina and I have been talking about moving Chloe out of Central City, since the guy who killed Barry's mom is back and while Barry can handle it, especially since he has his own team set up back in Central City, but honestly, Chloe has always had a bit of an inferiority complex to her brother and it's causing her to make mistakes. I think that Chloe would be able to better master her powers away from her brother, where she's not quite in his shadow anymore." Henry said.

"Huh, that's not a bad idea and we both know it could never hurt to have a speedster on the team." Pat said and Henry smiled.

"I think I might even give Chloe Eliza's name." Henry said.

"Silver Bolt? You sure about that?" Pat asked, since Eliza Harmon, aka Silver Bolt, had been Henry's sidekick back in the day before she'd been killed by Henry's enemy the Rival.

"Yeah, I am. I think that Eliza would be honored to have Chloe take up her mantle. Besides, Barry's already the Flash and I don't think Chloe would want to share that title with him." Henry said and Pat nodded as they continued talking.